Container

ABSTRACT

A container comprises a plurality of walls wherein a front wall is provided with a circular anchoring opening and a spaced substantially rectilinear opening. A flexible closure strip lies within the boundary of the front wall and has a pair of spaced undercut complemental bosses respectively removably engaged in the spaced openings such that the closure strip may be removed from the access opening and pivoted about the anchoring opening for removal of parts from the container. The corners of the access opening are rounded and the undercut of the corresponding access boss is increased at the corners in order to provide desired retention between the closure strip and the container.

United States Patent [191' Caveney et al.

[54] CONTAINER [75] Inventors: Jack E. Caveney, Chicago; Franklin L. Randolph, Clarendon Hills, both of Ill.

[73] Assignee: Panduit Corp., Tinley Park, Ill.

[22] Filed: Sept. 7, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 287,195

[52] US. Cl. 229/7 R, 220/33, 220/60 R, 229/37 [51] Int. Cl B65d 5/16, B65d 43/18 [58] Field of Search 229/7 R; 220/60 R, 38.5, 220/33 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,520,527 12/1924 Brooks 229 7 R 3,080,088 3/1963 Corrinet 220/38.5 3,526,351 9/1970 Goldstein 229/7 R [111 3,865,300 51 Feb. 11,1975

Primary Examiner-William l. Price Assistant Examiner-Bruce H. Bernstein Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Charles R. Wentzel [57] ABSTRACT A container comprises a plurality of walls wherein a front wall is provided with a circular anchoring opening and a spaced substantially rectilinear opening. A

, flexible closure strip lies within the boundary of the front wall and has a pair of spaced undercut complemental bosses respectively removably engaged in the spaced openings such that the closure strip may be removed from the access opening and pivoted about the anchoring opening for removal of parts from the container. The corners of the access opening are rounded and the undercut of the corresponding access boss is increased at the corners in order to provide desired retention between the closure strip and the container.

4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures CONTAINER This invention relates to a container and particularly to a container having a removable closure strip providing access to the interior of the container.

One prior art construction employed a closure strip having a pair of spaced undercut circular bosses removably engaged in complemental spaced openings in a cardboard container. The closure strip had a projecting gripping tab extending beyond the side wall of the container for lifting the closure strip and removing the larger circular boss out of its associated access opening whereby the closure strip could be pivoted around the second opening to provide access to the interior of the container. Small parts become intermingled in containers of this type such that the portion of the container between the circular opening and the corner retards removal of the parts from the container. Accordingly, it would be desirable to fabricate a container having a closure strip wherein the access opening provides maximum entry into the container and minimizes support of the intermingled parts by the side wall of the container defining the access opening.

Additionally, the projecting gripping portion of the prior art construction. in extending beyond the side wall of the container, prevents compact stacking of a plurality of similarly fabricated containers and-gives rise to inadvertent displacement of the closure strip thus resulting in accidental removal of the partscontained in the container. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a container having a closure strip wherein the closure strip is confined within the boundary of the surface of the container.

An additional problem with the prior art construction was due to the provision of spaced circular openings. In providing the circular access opening, removal of the closure strip therefrom occasionally required a force sufficient to additionally remove the closure strip from the smaller anchoring opening. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a container having an access opening with a complemental closure strip that requires a separation force less than the force required to remove the closure strip from the anchoring opening, yet provides sufficient retention force to prevent inadvertent removal of the closure strip.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved 'container.- An additional object of the present invention is to provide a stacltable container having a pair of spaced openings on a wall thereof with a closure strip having a pair of spaced undercut bosses removably engaged in the openings. An additional object of the present invention is to provide a container having an access opening and complemental closure strip wherein the access opening provides for maximum ease of removal of intermingled small parts. Yet, another object of the present invention is to provide a container having a pivotable closure strip engaged in both an access opening and an anchoring opening wherein application of a force adequate for removal of the closure strip from the access opening avoids inadvertent removal of the closure strip from its associated anchoring opening.

Briefly, the present invention comprises a container having a plurality of walls wherein a front wall'is provided with a circular anchoring opening and a spaced substantially rectilinear access opening. Aflexible closure strip has a pair of spaced undercut complemental bosses respectively removably engaged in the spaced openings. The closure strip lies wholly within the boundary of the front surface and is adapted to be removed from the access opening and pivoted about the anchoring opening for removal of parts from the container. The corners of the access opening are rounded and retention between the closure strip and the container is improved by increasing the undercut of the boss on the closure strip at the corners.

For a better understanding of the present invention,

reference may be had to the accompanying drawings FIG. 3 is a sectional view along line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial sectional view along line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial sectional view along line 5-5 of FIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, a container 10 has a front wall 11, rear wall 12 and side walls l3. The container may be formed of a material such as cardboard and is provided with end flaps 14 for closing of the ends of the container. Each end of the container is closed by a pair of side flaps l6 pivotally connected to the side flaps 13 with the end flaps l4 pivotally connected to one of the front or rear walls and having a tab 17 adapted to be tucked into the space between the other of the front or rear walls and the side flaps 16. The particular configuration of the illustrated container is merely descriptive of one embodiment of a container usable with the present invention.

The front wall 11 of the container is provided with a circular anchoring opening 21 and a substantially rectilinear access opening 22. The corners of the access opening are rounded as shown at 23. A flexible closure strip 24 is'provided with an anchoring boss 25 and an access boss 26. Each of the bosses 25, 26 have a complemental undercut portion 27 adapted to extend under the edges of the front wall defining the anchoring opening 21 and access opening 22 so as to maintain the flexible closure strap 24 in engagement with the container. As best shown by the dashed lines in FIG. 2, each width of the anchoring and access bosses is greater than the respective width of the associated complemental anchoring and access openings.

The container 10 is illustrated in FIG. 3 as containing a plurality of electrical terminals. When it is desired to remove articles from the container 10, a corner 28 of the flexible closure strip 24 is pulled away from the container whereby the access boss 26 is removed out It will be appreciated that it would be desirable to re-,

move only that number of parts desired to-be used at a particular time. The random intermingling of these parts often provides a situation wherein the part adjacent the access opening 22 will be prevented from removal through the opening due to the forces exerted on the part by the surrounding parts. In the prior art devices utilizing a circular access opening, the container material between the corner of the Container and the circular access opening often restricted removal of the small odd shaped intermingled parts contained therein due to the additional container material applying addi tional retention forces on more parts. it was thus necessary to tilt the container to a position where the retention forces maintaining the intermingled parts in the container would be overcome at which time an excessive number of parts would fall through the access opening. By reducing the distance between the boundary of the front wall 11 and the respective adjacent edge of the access opening 22 and additionally enlarging the access opening, the present invention greatly reduces this problem.

As previously indicated, it would be desirable to design the interference fit between the access boss 26 and the access opening 22 suchthat the force required to remove the access boss 26 from the access opening 22 is less than that required to remove the anchoring boss 25 from its associated anchoring opening 21. In the prior art construction wherein a circular access opening was provided, it was necessary to provide a gripping portion that extended beyond the edge of the front wall in order to apply the'necessary force required to overcome the interference fit between the access boss and its associated access opening. Occasionally this application of force resulted in removal of the anchoring boss from the associated anchoring opening. It will be appreciated that the shape of the access boss will greatly affect the retention forces holding the access boss in the access opening. By providing a rectangular opening as opposed to a circular opening, the effective length of the span across the access opening is increased thus resulting in a construction wherein the degree of flexibility at the outer edges of the access boss is greatly increased. This results in a smaller force being required to separate the access boss from its associated access opening.

In order to achieve the desired retention force on the access boss, it is preferable to provide a nonuniform degree of undercut. As shown in FIG. 4, the undercut at the corner 23 is approximately twice the undercut at the sides as shown in FIG. 5. This structure provides ease of entry into the access opening and eliminates inadvertent removal of the anchoring boss while also providing sufficient retention force to prevent accidental removal of the access boss.

While there has been illustrated what is at present considered to be a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it will be appreciated that numerous changes or modifications are likely to occur to those skilled in the art and it is intended in the appended claims to cover all those changes and modifications which fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A container comprising: a front wall, a rear wall and side walls; said front wall having a pair of spaced openings, one of said openings comprising a circular anchoring opening and the other of said openings comprising a substantially rectilinear access opening; and a closure strip having a pair of spaced undercut complemental bosses respectively removably engaged in said spaced openings, said closure strip lying within the boundary of said front wall and being pivotable about said anchoring opening, said rectilinear access opening being substantially rectangular and the corners of said rectangular opening farthest removed from said circular anchoring opening being rounded, the degree of undercut of the access boss of said closure strip being nonuniform.

2. The container as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottom edge of said rectangular opening is substantially parallel to the adjacent outer boundary of said front wall.

3. The container as defined in claim 2 wherein the bottom and side edges of said rectangular opening are substantially equidistant from the respective adjacent boundary of said front wall.

4. The container of claim 1 wherein the undercut at said corners is greater than the undercut along the sides of the rectangular access boss. 

1. A container comprising: a front wall, a rear wall and side walls; said front wall having a pair of spaced openings, one of said openings comprising a circular anchoring opening and the other of said openings comprising a substantially rectilinear access opening; and a closure strip having a pair of spaced undercut complemental bosses respectively removably engaged in said spaced openings, said closure strip lying within the boundary of said front wall and being pivotable about said anchoring opening, said rectilinear access opening being substantially rectangular and the corners of said rectangular opening farthest removed from said circular anchoring opening being rounded, the degree of undercut of the access boss of said closure strip being nonuniform.
 2. The container as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottom edge of said rectangular opening is substantially parallel to the adjacent outer boundary of said front wall.
 3. The container as defined iN claim 2 wherein the bottom and side edges of said rectangular opening are substantially equidistant from the respective adjacent boundary of said front wall.
 4. The container of claim 1 wherein the undercut at said corners is greater than the undercut along the sides of the rectangular access boss. 